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Birdman was the toast of the 87th Oscars on Sunday (22Feb15), earning Best Picture as Eddie Redmayne and Julianne Moore also celebrated big wins at Hollywood's big night.
Birdman filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu was named Best Director, while he also claimed Best Original Screenplay and Emmanuel Lubezki received the Best Cinematography award. Redmayne couldn't contain his excitement as he collected the Best Actor prize for his Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything, and Julianne Moore scored Best Actress for Still Alice, while fellow awards season favourites and first-time nominees J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) and Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) walked away with the best supporting acting prizes.
Wes Anderson also had reason to celebrate as The Grand Budapest Hotel, which tied with Birdman for the most nominations with nine nods apiece, scored four titles, including Best Original Score for Alexandre Desplat. Each of the nominations for Best Original Song were performed, but it was John Legend and Common's powerful rendition of Selma track "Glory" which left actors David Oyelowo and Chris Pine in tears at Los Angeles' Dolby Theatre as the audience gave the musicians a standing ovation. "Glory" went on to win the category. Meanwhile, Jennifer Hudson honoured the stars lost in the past year by singing "I Can't Let Go" as part of the In Memoriam segment, and Lady Gaga helped to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Oscar-winning movie The Sound of Music with an impressive medley of hits from the Dame Julie Andrews musical, including Edelweiss, Climb Ev'ry Mountain and the title song.
Ceremony host Neil Patrick Harris also showed off his vocals by opening the 2015 prizegiving with a comedic song and dance number with Anna Kendrick and actor/rocker Jack Black.
The full list of winners at the 2015 Oscars is:
Best Motion Picture of the Year: Birdman
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Best Achievement in Directing: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Birdman
Best Writing, Original Screenplay: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo, Birdman
Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay: Graham Moore, The Imitation Game
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: Ida (Poland)
Best Animated Feature Film: Big Hero 6 Best Documentary, Feature: Citizenfour
Best Documentary, Short Subject: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Best Short Film, Animated: Feast Best Short Film, Live Action: The Phone Call
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song: "Glory" from Selma, by John Legend and Common
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Achievement in Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
Best Achievement in Film Editing: Tom Cross, Whiplash
Best Achievement in Costume Design: Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Achievement in Production Design: Adam Stockhausen and Anna Pinnock, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling: Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Achievement in Visual Effects: Interstellar Best Achievement in Sound Editing: American Sniper
Best Achievement in Sound Mixing: Whiplash
Academy Honorary Awards: Jean-Claude Carriere Hayao Miyazaki Maureen O'Hara Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Harry Belafonte.

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman flew off with another seven top honours at the Broadcast Film Critics Association's 20th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards in Hollywood on Thursday (15Jan15). The movie picked up the event's first award for Best Acting Ensemble and went on to win another six accolades, including Best Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Score, while the film's star Michael Keaton added two more trophies to his collection - for Best Actor and Best Actor In A Comedy.
In his acceptance speech for the latter he noted, "Nobody is really better than anyone else, but I'll take this (award)."
The Grand Budapest Hotel, which, like Birdman, had picked up nine Oscar nominations earlier in the day, claimed three Critics Choice Awards, including Best Comedy, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design, while another Academy Awards favourite, Boyhood, scored four prizes - the top honour for Best Picture, Best Director (Richard Linklater), Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette), and Best Young Actor (Ellar Coltrane).
Other winners included Julianne Moore (Best Actress for Still Alice), J.K. Simmons (Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash), Bradley Cooper (Best Actor in an Action Movie for American Sniper), and Emily Blunt (Best Actress in an Action Movie for Edge of Tomorrow).
Chris Miller, the co-writer/director of The LEGO Movie had a very special reason to celebrate his win for Best Animated Movie, as it came just hours after the film was snubbed in the same category at the Oscar nominations.
He said, "What a rollercoaster of emotions today has been."
Meanwhile, special awards went to veteran director/producer Ron Howard, who was handed the Louis XIII Genius Award, Kevin Costner, who was feted with a Lifetime Achievement Award and Jessica Chastain, who was presented with the first ever MVP Award, celebrating her multiple roles in films throughout the year, including A Most Violent Year, Interstellar, Miss Julie, and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.
The full list of winners is as follows:
Best Picture - Boyhood
Best Actor - Michael Keaton (Birdman)
Best Actress - Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Best Acting Ensemble - cast of Birdman
Best Director - Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Best Original Screenplay - Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo (Birdman)
Best Adapted Screenplay - Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)
Best Supporting Actor - J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
Best Supporting Actress - Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
Best Young Actor/Actress - Ellar Coltrane (Boyhood)
Best Cinematography - Emmanuel Lubezki (Birdman)
Best Art Direction - Adam Stockhausen/Production Designer, Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Best Editing - Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione (Birdman)
Best Costume Design - Milena Canonero (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Best Hair and Makeup - Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Visual Effects - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Best Animated Feature - The LEGO Movie
Best Action Movie - Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Actor In An Action Movie - Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)
Best Actress In An Action Movie - Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow)
Best Comedy - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Actor In A Comedy - Michael Keaton (Birdman)
Best Actress In A Comedy - Jenny Slate (Obvious Child)
Best Sci-fi/Horror Movie - Interstellar
Best Foreign Language Film - Force Majeure (Sweden)
Best Documentary Feature - Life Itself
Best Song - Glory by Common and John Legend (Selma)
Best Score - Antonio Sanchez (Birdman)
Louis XIII Genius Award - Ron Howard
Lifetime Achievement Award - Kevin Costner
MVP Award - Jessica Chastain.

The Tourist is about as difficult to get through as spotting the vowels in the name of its director. Florian Henckel von Donnersmark was last seen receiving a Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2007 for The Lives of Others which was about a couple living in East Berlin who were being monitored by the police of the German Democratic Republic. Its positive reception made way for the assumption that Donnersmark would continue to populate the USA with films of seemingly otherworldly and underrepresented themes. But his current project is saddening in its superficiality and total implausibility.
The film’s only real upside is its stars: two of our most prized Americans. Johnny Depp plays Frank Tupelo a math teacher from Wisconsin who travels to Europe after his wife leaves him presumably because of his weakness and simplicity. While en route to Venice he meets Elise Clifton-Ward (Angelina Jolie) who situates herself in his company after she receives a letter from her criminal lover Alexander Pearce (who stole some billions from a very wealthy Russian and the British government) with instructions to find someone on a train who looks like him and make the police believe that he is the real Alexander Pearce to throw the authorities and the Russians off his track. Elise picks Frank and after they are photographed kissing each other on the balcony of Elise’s hotel everyone begins to believe Frank is the real Pearce and so begins the chase.
While Donnersmark could not have picked two better looking people to film roaming around Venice his lack of faith in the audience is obvious. Every aspect of the characters is hammed up again and again as if Donnersmark felt burdened with the task of making us see his vision. Doubtful that we’re capable of getting to where he wants us he has crafted a movie completely devoid of subtlety. Elise’s strength and superiority over Frank are portrayed by close-ups and repeated instances of men burping up their lungs upon seeing her (as if her beauty is in any way subjective?). And in case we forgot that Frank is the victim in this story -- even though he’s been tricked chased and shot at - Donnersmark still felt the need to pin him with a lame electronic cigarette to puff on. Frank and Elise somehow manage to lack mystery even though we get very few factual details about each of them.
Nothing extraordinary comes to us in the way of the film’s structural elements either. There is very little of the action that The Tourist’s marketing led us to believe and the dialog is often painful. The plot itself is almost shockingly unbelievable especially when we’re asked to believe that Elise falls in love with Frank after a combination of kissing him once and her disclosed habit of swooning over men she only spent an hour with (yes that was on her CV).
The Tourist is rather empty and cosmetic. It’s worth seeing if you’re a superfan of Jolie or Depp but don’t expect to walk out of the theater with anything more than the stub you came in with.